Unedited

***

I won't tell your secrets
Your secrets are safe with me
I will keep your secrets
Just think of me as the pages in your diary...

Alicia Keys "Diary"

***

“If we are going to do this,” Chey stated with a stern look that didn’t waver, “we are going to do this right. I don’t wanna know anyone’s real name - it is safer that way.” She fidgeted with the napkin placed in front of her as she paused for a second. “I don’t want to know any locations that your story took place in. Got it?” Chey asked as she rested her hands back in her lap and sat up straight.

I nodded as I began to wring my hands in nervousness. All this was unnerving for my brain was telling me I was an idiot for telling her this. The information she now knows could get us both killed - let alone Colton if she was to tell anyone. However, I felt in my gut that I could trust her.

“Good,” she proclaimed and then smiled. “Now, tell me what’s been bothering you.”

Nibbling on my bottom lip for a second I wondered where to start. However, I realized that she knew about Colton and I’s past. She knew he raised me and how close we were growing up. She also knew he left and I went crazy in drugs and alcohol. However, she just didn’t know that Chad (a.k.a Colton) was really Mr. Sharp.

“Chad is really,” I paused knowing there was no turning back if I tell her the next words to follow. Inhaling and exhaling slowly I knew I was an idiot. “Well, he is Mr. Sharp.”

Chey’s eye went wide and her face paled. “What?! He was the one that raised you?”

I nodded, “Yeah. The story about my childhood I told you the last time we had lunch was true. He - Chad / Mr. Sharp - did raise me, he did go to college and he did randomly end our friendship two years ago. I did go crazy when that happen. All of it was true ... however, my grandmother got sick and my parents told me that I was not allowed to see her until I cleaned up. They didn’t want her dying memory of me to be one of a druggie. So, somehow I did. I got sober and spent the last few weeks my grandmother had, by her side. She died not too long ago and I didn’t take her death well, to say the least...”

“You relapsed?” Chey question with a raised eyebrow.

Shaking my head, I replied, “No, not really. I just locked myself up in my room. I refused to eat or get out of bed. My mother didn’t like my state and knew of one person that could get me out of my depression-”

“Chad? Or shall I say, Mr. Sharp?” Chey guessed as she interrupted me.

“Yes, he came and attempted help me ... however, there is something I didn’t tell you that plays part in what happened next. When I was in my drunk days, while Chad and me weren’t friends,” I told Chey of my employment at Fragrant Peaches and what happened there, leading series of events that ended with me stealing from Duke, who I named Sebastian. I divulged to her that what I stole from Sebastian wasn’t his, but Mr. Sharp’s.

“Back to the story,” I continued. “When, Chad came back I lost it and decided the best way to deal with my pain was to go to a party that I was texted about. I went there and my friend Qu-” I stopped when I realized I was about to tell her Quintin’s real name. “My friend Kale questioned why I was at the party. Long story short Sebastian lured me into the party, in hopes of capturing me because Mr. Sharp wanted payment for what I stole.

“With the help of Kale, I was able to leave the party, unscathed.” I exclaimed, “After getting my stuff, I went to a hotel and I called-”

“What about Chad?” Chey asked as she leaned forward, clearly wrapped up in the story.

I chuckled, “Oh, I forgot. I went home, to get my stuff before going to the hotel, Chad was there. He was fuming that I left ... I told him I was going to Canada. He had it stuck in his mind that he was coming with me. So, I tricked him. I told him he could but he had to go pack. When he was packing I left-”

“Wait,” She interrupted, again. “I’m soaking this in ... Mr. Sharp is Chad. Not only did he come down from New York City to help you after your grandmother’s passing but he was going to go to Canada with you?”

I nodded, “Yeah, so he said. Anyways, I went to a hotel and called Kale.” From there I explained everything, up to the very moment.

Silence had blanketed Chey and I as we sat a booth located in the back corner of some bar and grill a few blocks from work. We had finished our lunch before I told her my story. Now, we were currently drinking coffee with the full knowledge that we’d surpassed the delegated time for our lunch break, but neither of us cared. We were too engaged what was going on at the moment...

“It all doesn’t make sense,” She finally said after a pregnant pause. Playing with the rim of her coffee mug she gave a puzzled expression as she thought deeply about something.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first you said that Sebastian told you that Mr. Sharp was going to kill his baby sister: Lynn, if you weren’t captured in three days. The thing I don’t get is, Mr. Sharp doesn’t threaten children. It has been against his rules since day one.” Chey eased her bewildered expression, “I think something else is at play.”

“There isn’t anything ‘at play’. He is a heartless and cruel man. You’ve heard the rumors and things he has done.”

“The are what they are: rumors. In fact eighty percent of the stories told in the gang about Mr. Sharp are lies. I was on the committee when he first come into power to spread vicious lies about him.”

“What? No way.”

“Yep, he wanted power and fast. We figured the best way was to get a group of people, have them placed in local Four Leaf Clover gangs and spread rumors about the new leader. It all spread like wildfire and that is how he got his reputation.”

I was shell shocked. “You are lying...”

“Nope ... Did you hear about the one where Mr. Sharp killed two policemen in broad daylight-”

“And then sent their heads to the local police department,” I finished.

“Yep, I made up that one myself,” Chey smiled with pride.

I sighed, “You’re lying.”

“Nope. He needed to gain authority and control of the gang, as quickly as possible after his cousin’s death. We got him that.”

“Well, it doesn’t change that fact he sent to have me killed. Kidnapped me. Locked me in a basement with nothing but a mere mattress ... He is not the Chad I grew up with. He...” Tears pooled in my eyes as I felt my heart drop.

Chey reached over and grabbed my left hand that was resting on the table. “He would never, normally, send to have someone killed for stealing what you stole-”

I stared Chey dead in the eye, “But he did,” I cried. “He told me face to face the night he kidnapped me. He looked me in the eye and said that he had sent someone to capture me. I correcting him in saying it was not a capture, but a kill he send out. Chad ... Mr. Sharp didn’t blink when he said and I quote: ‘Yes. That is how it works when you steal from me’.” I pulled my hand away from hers. “So, don’t sit there and try to make him look innocent.”

Chey leaned back in her seat. “What do you want me to say? That he is a cruel man? That he is an ass?”

“Won’t be a lie.”

“But it would. He didn’t send a kill on you-”

“He told me-”

“In the heat of his anger, disappointment and probably confusion at you, he lied. He said what he thought would hurt you, because you hurt him. He didn’t order a kill on you, Allison. It would go through my department if he ever did. Which, he has never ordered a kill - ever. Yes, he has ordered people to be blackmailed and has ordered people to be, admittedly, beaten. But never killed. He actually punishes people in the gang that kill.”

“Chey, he has stood before me and said on numerous occasions, in different ways, that if someone else was in my position they’d be dead. Now, I don’t know what has clouded you to believe that he is a good man but he isn’t. He was but he isn’t anymore. And that is a fact.”

Huffing, Chey shook her head. “You want a fact, Alice - that is what Chad called you right? Alice.”

“What - how did-”

“He got drunk one night, in his back room. Came stumbling out. No one was there but me, I was working on some contracts late at night. I saw him, trying to keep his footing. I raced over to him. He kept mumbling about Alice. I love Alice. I need Alice. Alice will never forgive me. Alice deserves better. So on, so on. I didn’t know who Alice was, until you said that Mr. Sharp is Chad.

“...He has never killed anyone, Allison.” She gave me a hardball look. “He stayed clean of the dirty business this gang should bring. He managed the gang with strict rules. No selling to children. No killing, etc. He brought rules that changed the Four Leaf Clover gang, for the better. From day one, he was set on having this gang done professionally-”

“Stop!” I slammed my hand on the table. Likely drawing attention, but I didn’t care. “He has changed! You don’t know him. I do. And that man, in the building a few blocks from here, top floor, corner office - more than likely sipping his coffee and staring at stapled papers that outline an agreement between his gang and another is not the man I grew up with. So, don’t sit there and tell me that he is ‘clean’. Because lets say, hypothetically that he didn’t have an order out to kill me and that he has never killed or ordered a hit. It doesn’t change the fact that he is not Chad. He is a ruthless business man, he is Mr. Sharp.”

With a roll of her eyes, showing no offense to what I just said, Chey’s lips twitched up, “Do you ever consider his side?”

“What is there to consider? His father asked him to leave me, he left me, he got into this stuff and now -”

“What if he wasn’t lying about the whole cousin being alive and the government trying to get him to find his cousin?”

 I looked away from her, I wanted that to be the truth. However, I couldn’t help but consider it a lie. “He was lying. He is not working for the FBI. He is, plain and simple, Mr. Sharp.”

Chey grabbed her coffee cup and took a long sip before placing it back down. “I think you are looking at this all from the wrong side of the fence. I think he still cares about you, Allison. He loves you and you love him ... if you know what I mean,” She wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

I giggled as all my previous anger vanished, “No. Like I said he has changed-”

“And what? You haven’t. Look in the mirror, Doll. You have piercings, tattoos and an attitude, at times, to match this hard exterior you put up. You too have changed, Allison. Like they say, time really does change people. But even still you guys are like magnets, irresistibly attracted to one another...”

 I goaned, “You don’t understand...”

 “I understand clearly, Dear. You and him were two peas in a pod. He left and got into the gang business. You got into drugs and alcohol to get him off your mind. Hell, you became a stripper and had a rocky time after that before stealing from a drug dealer and ending up here. If he is telling the truth about working with the police, to find his cousin, then you are screwed.”

 “Screwed?”

 “Yeah, he stayed on the right path. He did the right thing. Where you just fucked up all over,” She semi-joked. “I’m giving you tough love, Allison. From what I hear, you are just in the wrong as him. You’ve done shady shit and you criticize him as if you are a saint.”

 “That is not true. I’ve never kidnapped someone, threatened to kill, killed, and led a freaking gang! I’ve never been as heartless and cruel as him. I will never be Mr. Sharp.”

 “For your information, Mr. Sharp has kidnapped three people. A man named Owen Rogers, who beat and killed some people in the name of the gang. Mr. Sharp is against killing and imprison him to show a lesson to the others that is not acceptable. The second person was Martin Louis. He abused his pregnant wife, raided a pharmacy and tried selling drugs to children. Mr. Sharp blew a fuse and captured him.

 “The last person, was you. And yes he does threaten to kill people,” Chey admitted. “Has he ever? No. He has sent people to scare others into what he wants done. However, he has never killed or ordered a kill. He is really not the big bad wolf, Allison, I am trying to show you that. With your story that you told me and what I know ... I think he did this all for you.”

 “For me? How is any of this for me?”

 Chey reached over and smacked me upside my head, “He left because his father wormed the thought of you not having a normal life into his head. He wants you to be happy, to live and thought it would be best that he subtracted himself from your life. Let’s humor that idea that he was right about working for Tony and trying to find his cousin, Mich. He did it for you - to get money to pay for your college and have you set for the rest of your life.

 “He has done everything, in my eyes,” She continued, “For you. And he is not as heartless as you think, he gave us the week off for Christmas-”

 I laughed, “I did that. He wanted y’all to work the day before and after Christmas. I figured you guys deserved a break and sent an email out saying that you all get the week off.”

 “He is not going to like that.”

 “Oh what, is he going to kill me?” I inquired with a smile plaguing my face.

 Chey went serious, “Listen, Allison. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

 "There is nothing to get to the bottom of. He has changed, he is a gang leader, how ordered a hit on me and ended up kidnapping, instead.”

“That is your theory but here is mine: he loves you, more than you think. He is not a killer. Someone ordered that hit on you and he just went with it ... Maybe it was Tony ... Oh! What if Tony, is in the FBI and Chad is working with him? What if Tony ordered the hit on you, to make Chad look like he was being the big bad wolf?”

“Why would he do that?

“Mr. Sharp has been losing his grip with the gang. He’s empire is national, and with it being that big it is hard to control. Ordering a hit on someone who did something minor, shows that nothing goes unnoticed. Tony might have done it behind his back because Mr. Sharp would never agree to it...” Chey looked deep in thought. “Chad went along with what you said the midst of his anger, just rubbed it in your face that he could have killed you. If this is the case, and it was behind Mr. Sharp’s back then it wouldn’t have gone through my department. It would have been completely off the books because I, or someone in the office, would have reported it to Mr. Sharp because this is not something he’d do ... Man, I think we are getting somewhere...”

I shook my head with an amused expression, “Chey, I think you are letting your mind run ramped.”

Chey gave me an evil looking grin, “No. I have a theory and by golly, I am going to prove it.”

I rolled my eyes, “You do that.”

“I will and when I am right, you’ll owe me.”

“Okay...”

“I want you to ask Mr. Sharp out on a date if I’m right.”

Knowing she was not right, I smiled, “Deal.”

***

A/N:

You guys, I know what you are thinking. This story is just a cycle, same stuff over and over and over (I am thinking the same thing). Also, when is the romance gonna kick in? I mean, didn't the author read the summary she created?! Romance! We need romance (at least that is what I would be saying)

Don't worry my lovely readers ... This author has a plan. Hold on ... things in the next chapter are about the change the whole ballpark. You just wait...

MUHAHAHAHAHA!! 

Please:

Vote

Comment 

and 

Smile